Photo courtesy of Theo Dietrich

Junior Theo Dietrich sprints to the finish when swimming butterfly. “I’m happy with how the team did this year and I can’t wait to do it again next year,” Dietrich said.

The aquacats proved themselves to be a largely well-rounded team at this past Saturday’s METROS competition. Public and private schools from the DC metropolitan area competed for 1st place in the most anticipated event of the high school swimming season. The WJ girls came in 3rd place out of 36 and the boys came in 6th out of 33.

The girls earned a team total of 324 points, with only Holton-Arms and Stone Ridge ahead of them. The boys earned a team total of 205 behind Georgetown Prep, Wootton, Whitman, Gonzaga and Churchill.

The best event performance for the girls was the 200 yard medley relay, consisting of junior Maren Conze, senior Hanna Bingley, freshman Madeline Simmons and senior Lianna Rosman. This relay, consisting of backstroke, breaststroke, fly and freestyle, placed second behind Stone Ridge, losing by 2.11 seconds.

“Swimming with such talented teammates made my last ever METROS experience really special. We did great as a team and I am so proud of everyone for their hard work,” Rosman said.

Some other noteworthy performances came from junior Sienna Karp who placed 1st in 100 yard breaststroke with Bingley right behind her in 2nd, 2nd in 200 yard IM and was a part of the 400 yard freestyle relay that placed 3rd. Conze did her part in her two solo events, placing 2nd in 500 yard freestyle and 3rd in 200 yard freestyle. Sophomore Healey Morgan sprinted to a 3rd place finish in her 50 yard freestyle event.

“It was really exciting to be around my teammates and see so many of them swim fast and drop time. Getting to swim relays with my teammates and some of our graduating seniors was my favorite part of the meet. By the time finals had ended I was definitely sad the meet was over but I was really proud of how our entire team performed,” Morgan said.

For the boys, junior Parker Koenig earned 6th place in the 100 yard butterfly event. Swimming a time of 50.89 seconds made Koenig the 4th fastest all-time in this event for WJ. The boys were able to break the team record in the 200 yard medley relay. Senior Nikolos Natsvlishvili, senior Denis Kalinin, junior Theo Dietrich and Koenig earned themselves a 4th place finish with a time of 1:35.07.

“It was a really exhilarating experience for me and the guys. I am super excited that I was able to break the record with my teammates,” Dietrich said.